World Lymphoma Day

I've already written something about Lymphoma Awareness Month, and why awareness is both important and difficult. But today is World Lymphoma Awareness Day, as designated by the Lymphoma Coalition. 

The Lymphoma Coalition is a group of over 80 organizations from over 50 countries whose focus is on Lymphoma patients. It's an interesting group because they focus on so many different patients from different countries with different needs. Patients in the U.S., for example, may have access to more cutting-edge clinical trials than those in some other countries. But many in the U.S. may have a successful treatment only to find their lives devastated by financial toxicity, because they are responsible themselves for the cost of the treatment. We all have different issues related to where we live, and then we also all have the same issues that come from being a Lymphoma patient -- the physical effects of having cancer, and of the side effects of treatment, on top of the emotional effects that come with a diagnosis. The Lymphoma Coalition is concerned with all of it.

And so the theme of  World Lymphoma Day every year is broad enough to cover the needs of Lymphoma patients all over the world.

This year, the theme is We Can't Wait. It gets at the urgency that we all feel as patients.

If you go to the World Lymphoma Awareness Day website, you'll see that there are two particular things that the LC thinks are urgent.

First, we can't wait to address the ways the pandemic has affected people living with Lymphoma. I don't need to remind anyone reading this that the pandemic has affected us. Many of us have "imperfect immune systems" to some extent, whether it is outright being immunocompromised, or just having our immune systems work less efficiently, or just worrying about what might happen if our immune systems are challenged by viruses we don't know much about. It's been a difficult couple of years.

Second, we can't wait any longer to track lymphoma subtypes. I don't need to remind you all about my feelings on this. It's important for each of us to understand our own sub-type (the :C says there are over 80 of them). But it's important to normalize that, too, so news articles and informational essays don't lump all of those very different lymphomas into one. 

The World Lymphoma Awareness Day website has some sharable materials, if you're on social media and want others to know more. Feel free to go there and download them.

We're halfway through our special month. I hope you've become more aware of some things, and helped others to become aware.

But more importantly, I hope you've done something nice for yourself this month. Self-care is important, and if this is our month, you have an excuse. Get a massage. Get some ice cream. Take a nap. Do something to make yourself feel good. You deserve it. If you haven't yet, you still have a couple of weeks to do it.

Enjoy your day.